WhatsApp Is About to Hide Customer Phone Numbers — What BSUID Means for Your Business

WhatsApp is introducing usernames so people can chat without handing over their phone number. For most users that is a clean privacy win. For any business that runs on WhatsApp, it quietly changes the thing your entire customer database is built on — the number itself.

What is actually changing

WhatsApp is rolling out usernames to reduce how often phone numbers are exposed. The rollout begins in test countries in June 2026 and expands gradually from there. Once a user adopts a username, their phone number may no longer be automatically visible to businesses they talk to.

To keep Cloud API businesses working, WhatsApp is adding a new identifier called BSUID — a business-scoped user ID. It is a stable handle for a customer that is unique to your business. If a user has not adopted a username, you still receive both their phone number and the BSUID. If they have, you may receive only the BSUID.

Why this matters more than it sounds

If your growth has quietly depended on capturing phone numbers from inbound chats, part of that well can dry up as usernames spread. The important detail: numbers you already hold from earlier interactions keep working — you can continue messaging those customers as before.

The businesses insulated from this change are the ones that already captured and stored their contacts, with consent, over time. The ones harvesting numbers chat-by-chat are the ones exposed.

What to do now

This is the difference between using a chat app and owning a system of record. FLO stores every contact and its consent the moment it arrives, so when phone numbers go private you still own the relationship — not just the conversation. See how FLO works, or the wider context in our note on the January WhatsApp pricing change.